VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis warned Vatican bureaucrats on Thursday to beware of the devil, calling him a “elegant demon” who works in people who live the Catholic faith in a rigid, holier-than-thou manner.
Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia to remind the Holy See’s cardinals, bishops, and priests that they are not above reproach and are, in fact, particularly vulnerable to evil.
Francis warned them that living in the heart of the Catholic Church could lead them to “fall into the temptation of thinking we are safe, better than others, and no longer in need of conversion.”
“Yet we are in greater danger than all others, because we are beset by the ‘elegant demon,’ who does not make a loud entrance, but comes with flowers in his hand,” Francis told churchmen in the Apostolic Palace’s Hall of Blessings.
Francis has long used his Christmas address to punish Vatican bureaucrats, putting them through a typical Jesuit-style “examination of conscience” to help them repent in the lead-up to Christmas.
His most venomous criticism came in 2014, when he listed the “15 Curia ailments” that some people suffered from, including “terrorism of gossip,” “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” and living “hypocritical” double lives. The following year, Francis offered an antidote to the sins by listing the “catalog of virtues” he hoped they would instead practice, such as honesty, humility, and sobriety.
This year’s tone was similar, and Francis reiterated his condemnation of forms of abuse that even religious people use against one another.
“There isn’t just physical violence; there is also verbal violence, psychological violence, the violence of abuse of power, and the hidden violence of gossip,” Francis said, possibly referring to a new case of abuse of authority roiling his own Jesuit order. “Do not use your own position and role to humiliate the other.”
Furthermore, Francis appeared to want to take a broader swipe at the arch-conservatives and traditionalists who have become the pope’s harshest critics. Francis slammed their approach to faith, insisting that being Catholic is a “process of understanding Christ’s message that never ends, but constantly challenges us,” rather than a “set of never-changing dicta.”
“True heresy, as Saint Paul taught us, consists not only in preaching another gospel, but also in ceasing to translate its message into today’s languages and ways of thinking,” Francis said.
Traditionalist Catholics have criticized Francis’ emphasis on mercy and willingness to budge on doctrinal issues such as sacraments for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. Some have even accused him of heresy for some of his gestures and sermons, such as allowing “pagan” statues in the Vatican.
This year, Francis devoted the majority of his speech to the need to be vigilant against the devil’s work, a theme he recently discussed during his weekly catechism lessons with the general public.
He told Vatican officials that simply condemning evil or rooting it out isn’t enough because it often reappears in new forms, stronger than before. Francis used the word “we” several times, implying that he is among those in the Vatican who must keep the devil at bay.
“Previously, it appeared rough and violent; now, it appears elegant and refined,” he warned. “We need to recognize that and unmask it again. “These ‘elegant demons’ enter smoothly, without our even being aware of them,” he explained.
Francis told the story of a 17th-century convent in Port Royal, France, where the superior, Mother Angelique, charismatically reformed herself and her monastery after evil infiltrated, but the devil returned in the form of a rigid faith.
“They had cast out the demon, but he had returned seven times stronger, and he had introduced rigidity and the presumption that they were better than others under the guise of austerity and rigor,” Francis warned.
Some of Francis’ detractors, as well as his supporters, were in the audience. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who Francis fired in 2020 and stripped of his cardinal rights after accusing him of financial misconduct, returned to the annual Christmas ceremony.
Becciu, along with nine other people, is on trial in the Vatican criminal court and denies any wrongdoing. Francis recently allowed him to resume participating in Vatican ceremonies, indicating that the pope believes he may have acted prematurely in sanctioning Becciu before a court determined his guilt or innocence.
Source: AP